Monday, October 03, 2016

Journaling Power: How to Create the Happy, Healthy Life You Want to Live Blog Tour and Giveaway

Posted by Renee Roberson at 2:30 AM

Looking for a way to alleviate symptoms caused by multiple sclerosis, Mari L. McCarthy began journaling as a form of therapy. She soon discovered the remarkable connection between the mind, body, and spirit, and what we are capable of if we are willing to take a deeper look at ourselves. In her self-help memoir, Journaling Power: How to Create the Happy, Healthy Life You Want to Live, she teaches you how to put the ultimate self-healing tool right at your fingertips--journaling. Through Mari's moving personal story, you'll discover how pen-to-paper journaling leads to self-growth and life-changing transformation. You'll also learn that numerous medical studies prove journaling literally unleashes a healing agent that empowers your life in ways you've never imagined.

Praise for Journaling Power:

"Mari shows amazing courage and resourcefulness in tackling her illness head-on and using all her inner resources to unwind its psychological underpinnings. She writes with full personal transpar- ency, and using herself as the vehicle, she clearly and powerfully instructs and inspires the reader in the art of journaling. Of course you don't have to have a life-threatening illness like MS to reap the benefits of this beautifully-written and most inspiring book. All that being said, as a functional medicine physician, I cheered when she all-too-briefly mentioned going gluten and dairy free, since we look for underlying causes and in such autoimmune illnesses as MS, focus on gut health, gluten and other sensitivities, and lack of such nutrients as vitamin D."
~ Hyla Cass, M.D., nationally acclaimed expert in integrative medicine, psychiatry, and addiction recovery, associate editor of Total Health Magazine, and best-selling Author of 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health

"With a raw honesty, Mari conveys the physical and emotional challenges that compelled her to courageously explore new ways to heal and transform herself. Reading her book is like observing the evolution of a passionate relationship - with journaling! You'll want to use that famous line from When Harry Met Sally - "I'll have what she's having." We meet Inner Critic and Inner Coach, and are given a sprinkling of thought-provoking quotes and enriching journaling exercises. You'll feel inspired by a woman whose courage and passion not only enabled her to heal and transform herself in body, mind, and spirit, but go on to make her life work helping others do the same."
~ Joan Leof, author and memoirist

"I believe in the transformational power of journaling and have incorporated the practice in my life for many years. Journaling Power reminds us of the healing potential that lies within and the responsibility we have to take control of our own well-being."
~ Donna Gates, M.Ed., ABAAHP - best-selling author of The Body Ecology Diet: Recovering Your Health and Rebuilding Your Immunity

Journaling Power: How to Create the Happy, Healthy Life You Want to Live is available in print and as an ebook on Amazon.

Book Giveaway Contest:
To win a copy of Journaling Power, please enter using the Rafflecopter form at the bottom of this post. The giveaway contest closes Sunday, October 9th at 11:59 PM EST. We will announce the winner the next day in the Rafflecopter widget. Good luck!

About the Author:
Mari L. McCarthy is The Journaling Power Guide and founder of CreateWriteNow.com. Her blog provides journaling for personal transformation and healthy living ideas, information and inspiration for keeping a daily pen-to-page Journaling for the Health of It™ Practice. You can also download the FREE e-book, How to use Your Journal to Cure Writer's Block Now. More life-changing e-books
can be found in Mari's Personal Transformation Journaling Library and in CreateWriteNow’s store.

WOW:Mari, welcome! I know our readers are eager to learn more about you and your work.Writing a memoir can be tough. Yours is unique in that it includes journaling prompts to help the reader begin their own journey. How did you go about deciding how to format the book so that it all came together in a cohesive fashion?

Mari: Creating this self-help memoir was a long, interesting journey and again I attribute my success to my Journal. A couple of years ago, I got the universal message in it, “self-help memoir.” I read a lot about writing memoirs and even wrote an Anne Lamott sh*tty first draft of a memoir, called Thinking With My Heart and burnt it (okay, pressed the delete button). Then I started hearing voices in my head and in my Journal that said things like, “write what you know”, “write who you are” and “write the book that must be written.” So then, I asked my Journal (a lot),” how do I do that?” and resources started showing up. I drew on the organization skills that made me successful in business and in creating my journaling workbooks and more writers and writing coaches appeared to provide me what I needed to write a best-seller.

WOW: You are Chief Inspiration Officer at Create Write Now. What kinds of services and products do you offer in this role?

Mari: CreateWriteNow, The Journaling Power Center, provides many journaling power workbooks on a variety of topics from Love Your Body, to Whole Health to Spirituality to our latest best-seller, Journal Magic For Writers. You can check out our collection here. I also offer individual Skype Journaling Power Sessions where journalers and I work through whatever personal transformation challenges they’re facing and come up with a Journaling Action Plan to help them get unstuck.

WOW: Without giving too much away here, you began journaling as a way to deal with symptoms stemming from multiple sclerosis. What other holistic measures have you found helpful in your journey?

Mari: Besides journaling and singing therapy, I’ve worked with an acupuncturist, massage therapist, chiropractor, physical therapist, and medical intuitive. I’m currently working with an energy medicine healer who is also a Reiki Master. And I’m open to everything. So if you know of anything, I’ll check it out.

WOW:After receiving your diagnosis, you eventually retired from your successful consulting business and began the next chapter of your life with Create Write Now. What does an average day look like for you now?

Mari: After I shower, I do my ambidextrous Morning Pages--before breakfast and before turning on the computer. After breakfast, I practice my singing, then spend the rest of my morning writing, writing, writing. Then onto meditation and lunch and afternoons of meeting with clients, business associates and if time allows, more writing. Then dinner, client meetings, and finish up the day with Night Notes.

WOW: What advice do you have for people who say “I simply don’t have enough time in my day to write in a journal.” How would you encourage them otherwise?

Mari: The “I don’t have time” response to keeping a journal is code for what I call page fright. We have a lot of experience in taking care of everyone else, listening and believing our inner critic, believing that self-care time is so selfish and thinking, “I’m not a writer,” etc. that we are stuck in the way we’ve always lived. My suggestion is to “just do it” (thanks Nike!). Take five minutes, ask your Journal a question like, “How do I make time each day for Me?” Then free write, write, write. You may not get an answer in one sitting but you will get your muse’s attention.

WOW:Page fright. I love that. It's so true! In Journaling Power, you discuss the concept of the Inner Critic. What is the Inner Critic and how can we keep him or her from derailing our goals and dreams?

Mari: The Inner Critic is something we created as children to protect our treasures, talents and sense of self but since the messages that we got from parents, teachers and society were so strong, critical and unhealthy, we interpreted their messages as something wrong with us. We’ve been carrying those erroneous beliefs, thoughts and feelings around in the cells of our bodies since childhood. This is another area where our Journal can help us compassionately confront him/her/it and rewrite his job description, and use him as a resource in accomplishing our goals. Journaling also helps us uncover other healthy team members like our Inner Coach and Inner Kid who can help the Inner Critic adjust his attitude and modify his behavior.

WOW: Music is also a big part of your life and you eventually fulfilled your dream of becoming a recording artist! What kind of music speaks to you the most and how is it integrated into your life these days?

Mari: The music that “haunts” ;) me day and night are songs that I grew up with in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s as well the American Songbook which my mother introduced me to. And now that I’ve been working with Justin Stoney, the founder of New York Vocal Coaching, for several years, I feel (my favorite four letter “f” word) that singing is a somatic, spiritual experience. Like my journaling, singing heals, grows and transforms all of me. It’s not usual for situations or conversations to trigger a song. In fact, my clients go away from a session with me with a song to use as a journaling prompt!

WOW: Can you give us an example of a connection you found between the mind, body, and spirit as a result of your journaling practice?

Mari: Journaling got me out of living in my head and got me back into my body. I like to say that I’m now on a first name basis with my body. ;) Thanks to my journaling, I now have a healthy, compassionate relationship with my body. Through my journaling, I realized how emotional eating, stress, and blindly following doctor’s drug orders was not helpful, healing or healthy. Thanks to the love and support of my Journal, I got off of prescription drugs over 12 years ago and got off of over-the-counter drugs 8 years ago. My journal helped me change my unhealthy eating habits—I don’t do gluten, dairy, or processed foods. Through my journaling practice, I created a holistic food journal which I keep from time to time: I record what I eat and how I’m feeling emotionally and spiritually. That way I discover what’s really going on inside, what issues need to be addressed and start making changes.

WOW:You’ve built a whole community around the art of journaling. Can you share some of the transformational stories stemming from journaling you’ve heard from people on your blog?

Mari: Well, if you go to http://www.createwritenow.com/personal-transformation-journaling-stories, you’ll find a ton of stories about people’s journaling journey benefits, results, and discoveries. I run guest blog posts all the time where people share their journaling journey experiences, AHAs, and learnings. Those personal transformation journaling stories are our most viewed posts. Anyone who wants to submit their journaling journey blog post (written or video), can contact me here: http://www.createwritenow.com/contact-mari-l-mccarthy. And if a writer (yes we all are writers!) wants some help in composing their post, we’ll be glad to lend a hand.

WOW: What types of people do you think would benefit from the story and exercises in Journaling Power?

Mari: Everyone. Men and women. For this book, my target market is consenting adults over the age of 21. As one of my endorsers, Dr. David Hamilton, author of How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body says, “…In this book, Mari reveals the full power of journaling, not only for people who have an illness, but for anyone, actually, who simply wants to unlock their personal creativity or find some more meaning and purpose in their life.”

WOW: When you’re not writing, running your business, and making music, what are some of your favorite hobbies?

Wednesday, Oct. 5 @ Choices
Putting pen to paper each night may help you sleep better. Learn more at the guest post by Mari L. McCarthy, author of Journaling Power. Plus, Madeline Sharples shares her thoughts on the book.http://madelinesharples.com/

Thursday, Oct. 13 @ Writers Pay it Forward

Are you sitting around
waiting for a visit from a muse? Go after it instead! Read these tips on living
the creative life from Mari L. McCarthy.

Monday, Oct. 24 @ Renee’s Pages
Renee shares her thoughts on Journaling Power: How to Create the Happy, Healthy Life You Want to Live and what she learned after a few weeks of using Night Notes. Plus, a book giveaway! www.reneespages.blogspot.com

Wednesday, Oct. 26 @ Margo Dill
Read a guest post on the topic of "Recovering Your Child" and enter to win your own copy of Journaling Power: How to Create the Happy, Healthy Life You Want to Live.http://margoldill.com/

Thursday, Oct. 27 @ Memoir Writer’s Journey
Are you struggling with how to face and forgive things in your past? Learn more with a guest post by Mari L. McCarthy. Kathy Pooler will also offer a giveaway of the book.http://krpooler.com

9 Comments:

Renee--Thanks for doing this interview and Mari--good luck with your book. I have friends who swear by journaling. It has changed them as people as well as writers. It sounds like the changes and the additions you've made to your life have improved your life exponentially. Bravo!

I just wanted to say that I had the privilege to read this book a few times before published because I helped Mari with proofreading and a little editing in early stages. Her story is unbelievable and all true. I bought a copy of the book to give as a gift. This is terrific for anyone who wants to journal, has been journaling, wants inspiration. :) I am excited to also host Mari on my blog.

Wonderful interview, ladies! Mari, I love that you said, "Journaling got me out of living in my head and got me back into my body." I purchased your book for a friend who just found out she has MS and is very much in her head right now because of the diagnosis. But she's making some positive changes, including moving to New Mexico to try some different holistic therapies; and I think if she incorporated journaling as the base and recorded all her experiences and listened to her body, it would help a lot. I know she'll find your story inspirational. :) Thank you for the great work you do! I know your journaling challenges have helped me change my life for the better. Good luck on your blog tour! :)

Thanks to everyone who has already stopped by today! Working on this tour has been great and I loved Journaling Power. It motivated me to pick my journal and pen back up to help clear some creative writer's anxiety I've been having. I'm also going to start doing Night Notes, which Mari recommends as an alternative to Morning Pages. Hopefully that will rid my head of all the worries I often have right before I try to fall asleep. This book will be helpful to so many people--I encourage everyone to check it out, buy it as a gift for a friend, or put it on your holiday wish list!

I used to journal a lot going through my divorce and custody battle along with anything else that bothered me. There were times when I couldn't sleep, but if I journaled, I could almost always fall asleep right after. I will add your book to my wish list on Amazon because it looks like a book I need.

Thank you for everything @Margo, @Renee and @Angela. Here is the link for the free Use Your Journal To Cure Writer's Block. Years later, it's still our biggest seller! #WriteON! http://www.createwritenow.com/download-free-writers-block-tips